Thanks GHKT for letter on plant acclimatisation and variation among alpine and lowland forms in Ceylon.

Returns the Greenland catalogue, which he has kept too long.

Comments on letter from Georg Hartung to CL dealing with erratic boulders.

Discusses migration of plants and animals.

A letter from Thomas Thomson on heat endured by temperate plants.

Encloses MS by A. R. Wallace. CD has been forestalled. " . . . if Wallace had my MS sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short abstract!" Wallace does not say if he wishes CD to publish MS, but CD will offer to send it to journal.

Everything in Wallace’s sketch also appears in CD’s sketch of 1844. A year ago CD sent a short sketch of his views to Asa Gray. Can CD honourably publish his sketch now that Wallace has sent outline of his views? "I would far rather burn my whole book than that he or any man shd. think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit." Does not believe Wallace originated his views from anything CD wrote to him.

Is it fair to take advantage of knowing that Wallace is in the field? Seems hard on CD to lose priority of many years, but does not feel this alters justice of case.

Baby [Charles Waring Darwin] has much fever. Frightened because three children in village have died from scarlet fever.

Thanks for abstract of Etna paper [Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 148 (1858): 703–86]. Never expected to see Élie de Beaumont’s theory ["craters of elevation"] so completely upset. "He must have picked out favourable cases for measurement."

More than satisfied by what was done at Linnean Society [joint reading of CD’s and Wallace’s papers: "Tendency of species to form varieties", Collected papers 2: 3–19]. Intends to prepare longer abstract.

Has finished arranging his pigeons’ skeletons. May consult TCE on them.

CD is at work on an abstract of his conclusions on species and varieties [Origin]. His "bigger book" [Natural selection] will take two or three more years.

Explains that he cannot serve as President of the Zoological Section at the BAAS meeting [1858].

Comments on TCE’s skeletons.

Must get advice from Hugh Falconer on names of some bones.

Preparing his abstract [Origin].

Asks about colours of horses and stripes on asses.

Asks about dirt clinging to feet of birds as means of seed distribution.

Asks about Indian horses. Encloses questions.

Asks about dark stripes on shoulders and legs of Hungarian horses. Are stripes plainer in foal or adult?

Thanks RMR for contribution to Down charities. Declines invitation.

Thanks JE for information about striped horses.

Says John Lindley wants to know about Hungarian horticulture.

Thanks WE for an oriental treatise on pigeons, a paper on poultry, and specimens.

Asks about stripes on shoulders and legs of horses and donkeys.